January 28 on OVO Arena in London (England), local light heavyweight Anthony Yard (23-2, 22 KOs) will try to take away WBC, IBF and WBO champion titles from Russian Artur Beterbiev (18-0, 18 KOs) playing for Canada.
The challenger plans to arrange a hellish slugfest with the favorite. Yard told the story of his life to explain the simple plan for the fight: “To begin with, I started boxing very late – at 18 years old. And the first amateur fight was held a year later. I never boxed in juniors or youth – I immediately fought with adults. When I first met (coach) Tunde Ajayi, I had already formed my boxing style – I just copied and imitated the fighters that I liked. And with the help of Tunde, I pulled up the base.”
“For amateurs, I was trained by Tony Sisay. He helped me even when I turned pro. He always scolded me for “putting too much into the punches, which makes me very flat-footed,” Yard laughs. – He demanded from me the work of the legs, to enter the close and break the distance. And I answered him: “Tony, why do I need all this? I want to be a cool professional, not a cool amateur. I plan to win only by knockouts.”
“I won my first amateur fight by knockout. Then no one wanted to fight me. I went 3 months without a fight. I also beat the second opponent, but they didn’t give me the victory, ”recalls Yard. – You should have seen the face of that “winner” – the nose is broken, a black eye. And after the fight, he came to my locker room and wanted to give me a medal. Says you deserve it. And I answer him: “No, because I could not knock you out!” After that, I only won by knockouts.”
“Where am I leading? What do I want to say to all of this? The applicant smiles. – Only that I have my own way and my own way to achieve my goals. And every time I tried to prove something to someone, everything immediately did not go as I planned. Including in the fight against Sergey Kovalev or in the first fight with Lyndon Arthur. Only after all this happened, I suddenly realized that I should not go against my nature and my instincts. It was never necessary to deviate from this principle.
According to Yard, he realized everything after the defeat to Arthur: “I said to myself:” Dude, no more games! Now I know what to do in the ring. And now I will only act the way I can “”.
In December, Yard revealed that Usyk had given him advice on how to beat Beterbiev. The champion laughed at these tips and suddenly declared: I can hit Usyk at a meeting. According to Beterbiev, “We have already offered Usyk a fight.”
